Women sweep the boards at software engineering awards

A St Andrews University student has been named Young Software Engineer of the Year.

Gala Malbasic won first prize for an innovative project that used sensors to replace complex keyboard sequences with gestures, using the whole surface of a laptop or tablet.

Her winning project, called Leap Up: The Keyboard Renaissance, set out to simplify some of the complex shortcut sequences that people use and reduce the need to use both mouse and keyboard.

Hailing from Serbia, Gala spent her formative years in Russia and Cyprus before coming to Scotland to complete her studies in computer science at St Andrews. She was president of the university’s computing society and set up a student-organised tech event and hackathon in the town.

She was also a founder member of Startup St Andrews, a 52-hour entrepreneurial challenge conducted with Bloomberg LP, the Saltire Foundation and the Entrepreneurship Society.

Between her studies, Gala undertook internships with Candy Crush developers King, with travel startup Secret Escapes, and Makers Academy in London.

She has now taken up a full time role as a software engineer at Bloomberg LP, the international specialists in news and information for the financial services industry.

Abertay student Amy Parent won the Leidos Software Engineering Project Award for developing a reusable technology system for high altitude balloon missions used by meteorologists and researchers.

Amy, from France, now plans to do a PHD in Dundee while pursuing her passions for space.